[0:03] You are watching Access LaPorte County
[0:05] Channel 97. The next meeting is the Michigan City
[0:07] Board of Aviation Commissioners meeting on October 8
[0:10] . You can find more
[0:13] information about this meeting
[0:15] by visiting www.accesslaportecounty.org.
[0:32] Meeting of the Board of
[0:34] Aviation Commissioners to begin the session.
[0:38] Today is October 8, 2026, and we
[0:43] will meet here at the
[0:48] Michigan City Airport terminal. The
[0:51] members attending today are Jeff
[0:54] Ohling, Dwight Holman, Chuck Foreman,
[1:01] Steve Ryan, and Tom. We have a quorum.
[1:07] Other members present include Jess Neil.
[1:12] And Paul Scherer, yes, and us here.
[1:18] I think that's all, and our
[1:20] cameraman isn't here. Hello. Very
[1:24] good. So, did everyone have the
[1:27] opportunity to see the
[1:29] meeting minutes? I think it's from August 21st.
[1:35] August 21.
[1:36] Yes.
[1:37] Okay.
[1:38] I propose that they be accepted as
[1:41] written.
[1:42] OK. I
[1:42] second.
[1:43] OK. Is everyone in favor?
[1:45] Me, me, me.
[1:46] Here. Thank you. Very good. Let's see.
[1:52] We need to review the reports.
[1:57] We have the financial report and the
[2:00] manager's report, and everything else.
[2:02] Jessica,
[2:03] very good. Account balances. Oh, we
[2:07] 've already spent 67% of the
[2:10] total operating budget and 82% of the
[2:12] aviation fuel budget. We only have
[2:16] 50,630 left in our
[2:18] fuel budget. So, if we needed to
[2:20] get a full load of Jet A
[2:21] and Avgas, we couldn't. So,
[2:23] hopefully, we won't need either of them
[2:24] by the end of the year. We have two
[2:26] more months. Hopefully, we'll only need
[2:28] one or the other. I'm going to have to transfer
[2:32] funds to some
[2:33] budget lines, as I do every year
[2:35] , including overtime,
[2:38] building maintenance supplies, legal, and possibly
[2:40] electric gas. Right now we're $
[2:44] 415.14 overpaid on electricity and gas,
[2:47] but you never know. This month has been
[2:50] quite nice, so our
[2:52] next bill might be a bit
[2:53] lower than I expected and we'll get by
[2:55] . Everything else is more or
[2:58] less normal. Not legal. The reason
[3:02] the legal process has ended is
[3:03] simply because all these
[3:05] lease transfers that are
[3:06] right here are on this agenda. Bill has
[3:10] been working very hard to
[3:12] document them properly and
[3:13] deliver them to me because we had the death
[3:16] of a hangar owner. And it had
[3:20] quite a few hangars. That's why
[3:22] the legal process has ended.
[3:23] And does each hangar require
[3:24] separate authorization?
[3:25] Yes. Each hangar requires a
[3:27] separate lease. Correct.
[3:29] Well, those are our
[3:32] account balances. Regarding
[3:35] fuel sales, we sold a total of 2,046
[3:38] gallons of 100 low lead, 3,456
[3:41] gallons of Jet A, and 149.8 gallons of UL
[3:45] 94 in September. So far this year,
[3:48] fuel sales have risen by
[3:50] 22%. Well, at the beginning of summer
[3:52] we were at 68%, we're at 22% now,
[3:54] that's still incredible, guys.
[3:56] We normally aim for 5%; A good
[3:58] year is when we achieve 5% more than the
[4:00] previous year. So 22 is very good.
[4:03] Our fuel prices are $6
[4:06] for AVGAS self-service, $615 for
[4:08] AVGAS Jet A full service, we're
[4:11] at $564 for both self-service and
[4:13] full service, and
[4:15] UL 94 self-service is $645. I just found out
[4:18] , I haven't checked, but they did
[4:20] say they no longer manufacture
[4:22] UL 94 and that 100LL has been approved
[4:25] for Swift. So I think
[4:27] next time we buy fuel it
[4:29] will be 100LL, but I haven't
[4:30] tested it with Swift yet. I just found out
[4:32] from someone who uses Swift
[4:34] that it's been approved and
[4:36] that we should move there soon.
[4:38] Brilliant. Well, we'll
[4:40] keep the 100LL in the
[4:42] big tank, but we'll have the 100R in the
[4:44] small 1000-gallon tank. That's
[4:48] all about fuel sales.
[4:51] Airport project presentations. These last two weeks
[4:53] I've been invited to give some
[4:54] presentations. Brilliant. Current state
[4:57] of the airport, ongoing and
[4:58] upcoming projects. I completed the
[5:00] Neighborhood Leadership Academy at the
[5:02] Economic Development Corporation and also gave a
[5:03] presentation for the
[5:05] Michigan City Exchange Club. It
[5:07] 's always fun, and then they always
[5:08] trick me into buying a
[5:10] fundraising ticket and going to their dinners and
[5:12] everything else. So. The
[5:14] Fall Waste Department is
[5:15] a full amnesty program for
[5:17] trash containers at the
[5:18] airport. As part of an
[5:20] ongoing campaign to help Michigan City
[5:22] have a clean community and reduce
[5:24] unwanted household clutter.
[5:25] Michigan City continues its fall
[5:27] trash container cleanup program
[5:28] here at the airport. This
[5:30] month, six opportunities
[5:32] to quit began yesterday. It ends on Saturday,
[5:36] October 24. They are on Wednesdays and Saturdays
[5:38] from 8:00 a.m. m. at 12:00 p.m. m. Refuse
[5:41] also has a
[5:42] tire amnesty during which they will accept
[5:44] four tires per household. Programs
[5:47] for Michigan City residents with
[5:48] a valid ID.
[5:51] Participants need to arrange their
[5:54] own transportation, and if
[5:56] anyone has any questions, they can
[5:58] call the waste department at
[6:00] 219-873-1530. No to the airport. Because all I'm saying is,
[6:05] call Refuse. I know
[6:07] nothing about garbage. I only know about
[6:09] airplanes. Police
[6:12] department short course training program
[6:13] . We love it when you come
[6:15] here, don't we? For many years,
[6:18] the police department has
[6:19] used our track for an
[6:20] annual
[6:22] short-course driver training program. They place
[6:25] cones. Each police officer goes out
[6:26] with a training officer. They
[6:28] lead the course. They use the
[6:30] northeast part of the runway. There is still plenty of
[6:33] space to park aircraft and
[6:34] access to self-service
[6:35] refueling while they
[6:37] are here. The short course is
[6:38] delimited by cones. I issued a NOTAM
[6:40] closing the northeast portion of the runway.
[6:43] The dates have not been set yet, but it
[6:45] should be at the end of October or the
[6:47] beginning of November because that's
[6:48] when they have to finish it. They know that
[6:51] summer is off-limits because
[6:52] we're too busy and I don't have
[6:53] time for that. So October,
[6:55] November, I don't care. So that's it
[6:59] . That's all, Paul.
[7:01] Okay. Okay. The airport development hole
[7:04] .
[7:07] Yes, the runway project is not
[7:10] very far along yet. Basically,
[7:15] we've spent the last year
[7:17] talking about why they paused it and
[7:19] asking for the cost-
[7:21] benefit analysis if you need it, if you
[7:23] remember. At the last meeting, they laid
[7:28] everything out. We have requested another
[7:31] meeting. But I think the plan now
[7:34] is that we have an agreement to announce
[7:38] the temporary road and
[7:40] storm drains. We put it on
[7:44] hold because there was no point in doing it
[7:46] if they weren't going to give us the money. We've been
[7:49] charging the
[7:51] grant administration number for
[7:53] all these meetings with the FAA.
[7:57] Therefore, we will not take any
[7:59] action on this matter today, but we propose that
[8:02] we modify some of these services
[8:04] and include cost
[8:07] -benefit analysis because I do not believe we will be able
[8:10] to avoid it. We've been playing around with
[8:14] that, just experimenting. They are quite
[8:17] uncommon for any project,
[8:21] particularly for
[8:24] general aviation projects. We have three miles
[8:27] of costs and benefits that we
[8:29] have played with. We believe we can
[8:32] make this work. Therefore,
[8:35] if we believe we can win,
[8:37] we might as well say yes and review it
[8:39] to see if we can make this
[8:42] work again. That's the plan.
[8:47] They did not request a CIP meeting with
[8:49] us. We applied to the FAA for one,
[8:52] so let's wait and see, but the most
[8:54] important thing is that INDOT continues to
[8:56] invest money in the 5-
[8:59] year program for the track, a sum of
[9:01] about $15 million at the
[9:04] moment, which they have there for a
[9:06] period of 5 years. And the FAA says we can't
[9:10] do anything about it until
[9:12] we get approval from the BCA.
[9:15] Therefore, we need the FAA to
[9:19] align with INDOT and basically tell us,
[9:22] "Are you really going to make us
[9:25] redo all of this if
[9:28] the BCA is approved?" Because, you know, there's a
[9:31] 3-year timeframe for much of that
[9:33] planning that was approved in
[9:35] 2018-19. So that's where we are
[9:39] with that. We're not going to give up, but
[9:43] last year was certainly
[9:45] frustrating. Last year. Any
[9:49] questions about that?
[9:51] Okay.
[9:52] I anticipate that meeting will
[9:55] probably be in the first or second
[9:57] week of November because they already have
[10:00] CIP meetings scheduled until the
[10:02] end of October. So that's
[10:05] where we are.
[10:06] Oh. Oh, yes. What are
[10:14] they demanding? What are they saying they're demanding? Another BCA
[10:18] ?
[10:19] Well, we never did a BCA because the
[10:22] first time we reviewed the
[10:25] AIP manual at that time, if you didn't spend more
[10:28] than $10 million in
[10:31] discretionary money on capacity, you didn't have to
[10:34] do a
[10:36] cost-benefit analysis. So, in the
[10:40] study of the runway protection zone
[10:42] , we analyzed how much of the
[10:48] project funds were for capacity and
[10:51] how much for safety. Therefore,
[10:55] there is a runway extension element
[10:57] in the project, but in reality, the
[10:58] majority of the project cost is
[11:00] for the runway protection zone
[11:02] and the improvement of the runway safety area
[11:04] . The protection zone and the
[11:07] safety area of ​​the runway are
[11:08] key elements. Well, that's how
[11:12] the AIP manual was written at the
[11:14] time, and it said, "Well, if it's a
[11:16] security project, there's no limit. You
[11:20] never have to do a
[11:21] cost-benefit analysis if it's related
[11:22] to security. You only have to
[11:24] do it if it's related to
[11:25] capacity." Well, the extension of the
[11:28] track section was very small,
[11:30] like $2 million. Well below the
[11:34] $10 million threshold, it remains
[11:36] below the $10 million threshold
[11:38] even with the project at current cost
[11:41] . The problem is that it was Deb Martell
[11:44] who basically wrote the
[11:48] compliance with the RPZ study and
[11:51] accepted that. She was also the one who
[11:53] said, "We will finance this great project
[11:54] . Wait in line."
[11:57] She is assigned to a different area,
[11:59] so she has not been involved. There are
[12:01] new people. The AIP manual, which contains
[12:04] the rules on how they spend their money
[12:07] , has changed. There was an update on that
[12:08] . And they added another paragraph in
[12:11] the cost-benefit analysis that
[12:13] basically says everything they said before
[12:16] about the $10 million in security and
[12:18] capacity and all that kind of stuff,
[12:21] but there's another general paragraph that says
[12:24] , or if the AFA requests one. Yes, in
[12:27] other words, if they don't like the
[12:29] project, they can say, "Show me a
[12:32] BCA." Correct? They can request one
[12:34] at will. They don't have to have a
[12:37] reason. It doesn't have to follow
[12:39] safety versus capacity or anything like that
[12:42] . So, in that last
[12:45] paragraph they're saying: "Hey, the
[12:48] project is a good project.
[12:51] We just need to know if it's a good
[12:53] project at the current price."
[12:54] Basically, that's where they are.
[12:56] So, do a
[12:57] cost-benefit analysis. And we really can't
[12:59] . We went back and told the
[13:01] story several times: "Hey, we were
[13:02] told we wouldn't have to do
[13:04] this. It's not a
[13:06] $10 million capacity." Nobody believes it
[13:09] .
[13:10] So, what is the
[13:11] investment cost of the BCA? How much is it?
[13:13] Well, we're trying to figure it out.
[13:16] The answer is,
[13:17] pages? What are you talking about?
[13:19] How big? I don't know how big
[13:21] a BCA is.
[13:22] Yes, very
[13:23] big. There isn't
[13:23] ...Yes, they're going to be honest about
[13:26] this. They don't. Nobody does them. And the
[13:30] guide is very vague. And well, we
[13:33] made them for Indianapolis International Airport
[13:34] , and they cost around
[13:36] $200,000. We don't think that's it
[13:38] . We think it's something, you know, maybe
[13:42] a tenth or a quarter of
[13:45] that. Yes.
[13:47] And it's basically not like an ROI, like
[13:51] where you would pay off the
[13:54] project investment. It has to do with the type of
[13:58] value they assign to human life, and
[14:00] what the potential for loss of
[14:02] life is, and all that kind of stuff. And that's
[14:05] basically what drives the
[14:07] profit side of the project.
[14:09] That's the cost aspect.
[14:10] The cost is, obviously,
[14:12] the cost of the
[14:13] asset
[14:14] over time, but
[14:16] all maintenance is taken into account, and it is
[14:18] brought back to its present value, and then
[14:20] compared with the benefits. So,
[14:23] the benefits are, you know,
[14:25] obviously, first, the preservation
[14:27] of life and property, which is the
[14:29] most important figure. And then you
[14:33] wonder, if I weren't here,
[14:35] how long it would take to drive
[14:37] from Gary or LaPorte or South Bend, and
[14:39] get here. So, you add up
[14:42] all that ground transportation time
[14:44] , the additional fuel burned, and
[14:46] all that ground transportation stuff; all of that
[14:48] goes into the figures. But
[14:51] what about the benefit to the
[14:53] community here? I mean,
[14:54] that's not really...
[14:55] We have a pretty big impact
[14:57] on the community. It's
[14:58] not really an economic impact.
[15:00] That's it, that's all.
[15:02] Yes, that's the
[15:02] impact statement we made.
[15:04] EIS.
[15:05] Yes, economic impact study.
[15:07] Analysis. They just want to know.
[15:10] Yes, it mainly concerns
[15:13] direct costs or potential
[15:15] liability if the project is not carried out
[15:18] . That's what goes in the
[15:20] profit column. And the cost is...
[15:24] But I thought it was the
[15:25] security part. I
[15:26] know. And I
[15:30] thought it was the infrastructure. I mean
[15:32] , I
[15:33] know.
[15:34] Yes.
[15:35] And it's not very clear, you know. I understand you
[15:40] .
[15:41] But then you get into very
[15:44] abstract things. So, to be
[15:46] totally honest, I don't know what
[15:48] the rules are. I'm telling you. I don't know what
[15:50] the rules are for
[15:52] cost-benefit analysis at an airport
[15:54] like this, of this size. It's very
[15:56] clear for Indianapolis. It's not very
[15:57] clear here. Because nobody
[15:58] had done it. There isn't a book that says, you
[16:04] know, that an accident, you know,
[16:07] has this value or that this human life
[16:10] has this value. We've already
[16:13] covered that.
[16:14] Correct. Did
[16:16] n't we manage...? Yes.
[16:18] So we're going to charge as little as
[16:21] possible because, as you know, we've
[16:24] invested a lot. They have invested a lot in
[16:28] this project that goes south. We don't
[16:31] want to spend money or time on anything other
[16:34] than building runways
[16:37] .
[16:39] Make sure to count the number of
[16:41] school buses that pass through here
[16:43] . Yes. I
[16:44] mean, there are 20,000
[16:46] cars a day, which, when
[16:47] we did the initial study, the
[16:49] initial RPC.
[16:50] These are the shirts that have that
[16:51] logo.
[16:52] Correct.
[16:52] Yes, that's correct.
[16:55] Yes. To answer your question, we
[16:58] 've never done a
[16:59] cost-benefit analysis because we thought we
[17:01] had already achieved that. Or no, we hadn't
[17:03] succeeded.
[17:04] We thought not, I
[17:06] thought we had made it.
[17:07] We made one years ago. We
[17:09] only had to justify the use of the
[17:11] track.
[17:11] We made a justification.
[17:12] Yes.
[17:13] Justification for the
[17:14] runway. Yes. Yes.
[17:15] And that...
[17:16] Yes, something like that. Yes. Okay. The project
[17:21] to seal cracks and surfaces of
[17:23] the track, a warranty inspection was carried out
[17:25] . It's not working very
[17:28] well. Therefore, it was supposed to
[17:32] last 5 years. That's debatable, I
[17:34] think. So, we're going to call a
[17:38] meeting with the N-Dot and the manufacturer
[17:40] here. There is still more
[17:42] warranty work to be done. Therefore,
[17:45] I guess N-Dot will pressure these
[17:46] people to come and fix it every
[17:48] spring for the 5 years it was
[17:50] supposed to last. And then
[17:53] we will have to, unfortunately, I think
[17:55] the situation is reaching the point where we
[17:58] will have to do something about it.
[18:03] We were trying not to do anything about it
[18:04] while we were working on the
[18:06] runway project. But you know,
[18:09] aviation is the safest means of transport
[18:11] for a reason. We cannot
[18:14] allow the track to reach the point where it
[18:15] becomes a hazard. Therefore,
[18:17] we will have to do a milling and
[18:18] filling.
[18:19] Would it be possible to raise it to where it
[18:22] needs to be for the next level
[18:24] ? The next one.
[18:25] Not so high. There's a lot of fitting.
[18:30] And simply fill it with soil.
[18:31] Yes. Okay. Well, that's all. Any
[18:38] questions about that project? No. Yes.
[18:43] Regarding the fuel supply, no
[18:45] changes. The same schedule as
[18:49] before. I'm supposed to be
[18:51] here. Well, it's actually in
[18:52] November, right?
[18:53] Yes, it's almost here.
[18:54] So they'll leave everything, wire it up
[18:57] before, you know, they shut down the
[19:00] old system, that's the plan. So
[19:05] , if they remove the old system from the
[19:07] ground and close it up this season, it will be
[19:12] interesting because winter is coming
[19:13] .
[19:14] But they planned to try. So we'll
[19:16] see.
[19:16] Clear. Clear. And that
[19:20] state and local maintenance program. So
[19:23] we signed the grant agreement yesterday.
[19:25] Oh. That's great. So now
[19:27] we have a signed grant agreement. Now we just
[19:29] need to buy the radar. They have
[19:30] n't sent you the
[19:31] purchase order number yet. Not yet
[19:32] .
[19:33] As soon as we have the
[19:35] purchase order number, we will issue the
[19:36] contracts and you can proceed. With the
[19:39] weather as it is, it's likely that if
[19:41] they had an open schedule,
[19:43] they could come and do it, but
[19:45] they're probably busy for a
[19:47] while. That could happen in the
[19:49] spring. The IIJA funds, we have
[19:56] this point number five and point
[19:59] number six which go hand in hand.
[20:02] Consideration of the draft
[20:04] AWOS professional services agreement. That
[20:07] is the first project we are going to
[20:10] focus on at the CIP. The CIP has
[20:15] very small fonts on the
[20:17] following page. The fonts
[20:19] on the page are a bit small. There's a
[20:22] slightly larger game in the text here,
[20:26] but basically we're saying we have
[20:30] $397,000 of IIJA funds left.
[20:36] Mhm.
[20:36] After we made the track, the
[20:40] snow removal. And now we have to
[20:45] spend that money. $20,000 of
[20:48] that money will expire in October
[20:50] 2027 if we don't spend it. We have plenty of
[20:53] time to spend them. We have some
[20:56] projects listed here for which
[20:58] we had ideas. The AWOS replacement,
[21:01] PAPI replacements at both ends,
[21:05] the FA obstruction tower project
[21:08] . We tested the PAPI and the
[21:16] obstruction tower together because we believe it
[21:23] 's a good case. I'm still not
[21:26] sure if they feel the same, but
[21:28] basically if you fly with the
[21:30] PAPI angle, pilots feel that the
[21:32] obstructions are too close.
[21:38] If we were to replace the PAPIs
[21:40] today, they would probably be further down
[21:42] the runway and at a 4° angle
[21:43] to try to provide more
[21:45] separation from obstructions.
[21:48] Those are the two zoom lenses, right?
[21:49] Yes, at both ends actually. The
[21:52] far south is actually no better and
[21:54] I think that's because, in my
[21:56] research on this, I believe the
[21:59] PAPIs were installed before the
[22:04] current displaced threshold locations. And that illusion...Yes, yes,
[22:08] so instead of being basically
[22:10] 270 feet closer to the end of the
[22:12] pavement than they should be,
[22:14] basically at each end. One is
[22:17] at 250, the other at 270. But that reduces
[22:20] the height at the threshold crossing,
[22:22] right? So if we did that,
[22:26] you would move the PAPIs and lose more
[22:28] effective runway length. I
[22:30] mean, the published length remains
[22:32] the same, but if you fly the PAPI
[22:35] to the touchdown point, you have no endpoints, but if
[22:37] you fly the PAPI to the touchdown point
[22:39] , it's dropping you about 800
[22:41] feet from the end of the pavement. And
[22:45] then, when you're
[22:48] basically working with 4,000 feet of pavement
[22:50] , you only have 3,200 feet left. We want to
[22:54] try to preserve as much of the pavement as
[22:56] possible from the point of contact.
[22:59] So, at this far north,
[23:01] we have also determined that they
[23:03] installed the pappies or installed the
[23:06] obstruction towers at the height of the
[23:08] vent tree before
[23:11] we had the environmental resources plan
[23:13] . The environmental resources plan
[23:15] was approved after
[23:17] the towers were installed. The
[23:20] environmental resources plan gives us permission
[23:23] to prune the trees as long as
[23:25] , you know, we let the
[23:28] debris fall and don't disturb the
[23:30] flora and fauna of the forest area's soil
[23:32] . And with that, we have the
[23:37] ability to manage those trees
[23:39] up to a threshold sighting surface
[23:42] that is more traditional. Instead
[23:44] of raising the pappies on the ground,
[23:46] we can keep them at three, which is a
[23:49] standard approach angle. And
[23:53] we could lower those towers to that
[23:55] surface and prune the trees around them
[23:57] in theory. The justification
[24:01] for this is that, firstly, we did not have
[24:02] the environmental resources document
[24:04] when the towers were installed.
[24:06] Second, the advisory circular
[24:08] actually changed. They cited
[24:12] different thresholds in
[24:14] advisory circular 5313A, which is what they
[24:16] are installing. Now we're under
[24:19] 13B and they've changed, they don't even have
[24:21] appendix two anymore. It is now more
[24:23] aligned with a TERPS procedure,
[24:25] which is how instrument approaches are written
[24:28] . So, we used that
[24:32] argument. We had a meeting with
[24:35] Riley and another FA member, Melanie
[24:38] Myers, who oversees the
[24:40] Indiana Central team because Riley is
[24:42] relatively new in this position. And
[24:45] there were many questions about that. They did not
[24:48] agree with this. I think
[24:51] we can solve it. One question was,
[24:53] well, they already had PAPI, what was the
[24:55] funding? Well, they were installed
[24:57] locally. Oh well, the FAA won't
[24:58] pay to reinstall or replace
[25:00] locally funded PAPIs. That
[25:03] 's not true. The AIP manual makes it very
[25:07] clear that they should have been paid in the
[25:08] beginning. So, in reality, they only
[25:11] got 20 years of free PAPI.
[25:12] So that's how you
[25:14] should look at it. I think we'll definitely win that
[25:16] argument. The
[25:18] instruction tower is something like...
[25:20] Melanie says, "Well, you know, we have
[25:23] the capability to say that they were installed
[25:26] according to 13A, they're protected.
[25:29] They're fine as they are." That's what
[25:32] we heard the last time we wanted to
[25:33] download them. We'll
[25:35] go down one or two, right?
[25:36] Yes. Yes. We went down the one that's right on
[25:39] the Sierra Nevada fence, yes. Well,
[25:45] she didn't believe it, although she opened the
[25:49] door with, "They're 16 years old. If
[25:53] they need rehabilitation or, you know,
[25:56] some work, they're eligible for
[25:59] rehabilitation." So, we've
[26:02] moved on to rehabilitating the towers, in
[26:04] which case, when we rehabilitate them,
[26:06] we should make them comply with
[26:08] current standards, and that would have given us
[26:11] the opportunity to make some adjustments
[26:13] . Well, Jessica says that most
[26:16] of the batteries in the lights haven't been
[26:17] touched. There are a couple of them that we
[26:19] changed the batteries in, I suppose.
[26:21] Yes.
[26:21] But most don't. So I think
[26:24] we have a good case there. So let's go back
[26:26] to that. And then, in addition,
[26:29] the trees that have grown have clearly
[26:32] not been pruned. The trees that
[26:35] we pruned earlier.
[26:36] Correct.
[26:37] Because of the pruning, you know, Jessica
[26:39] astutely pointed out that the trees we
[26:40] 've pruned before are still
[26:42] clearly visible because their canopies
[26:43] are flat. And everyone else, you
[26:46] know, and their cups are on the floor
[26:47] right next to them. The others do not
[26:49] have flat tops and
[26:51] are not lying on the
[26:52] ground either. So it's quite easy to
[26:54] identify. And that's one of the
[26:56] criteria: the FAA pays for pruning a
[26:58] tree once. After paying for it
[27:00] once, it becomes a maintenance item. It is
[27:02] no longer a capital expenditure. So we
[27:05] have to convince them that the
[27:07] trees we are going to prune haven't
[27:09] paid before.
[27:10] Yes.
[27:11] Well, we're still working on it. All
[27:15] this to say that what we had
[27:18] planned for 2027 was to try to
[27:20] resolve those things. So we're going to
[27:24] spend IJ money on the
[27:25] fuel farm, IJ money on AWOS, for
[27:27] sure. Now, let's talk quickly about
[27:30] the AWOS. The AWOS is a Vaisala AWOS.
[27:35] Vaisala was bought by a company
[27:36] called DBT. DBT also bought a
[27:40] company called All Weather. Mhm. All
[27:44] Weather and Vaisala are two approved AWOS systems
[27:46] . There are only four
[27:49] AWOS systems approved by the FAA. So
[27:52] now one company has two of them.
[27:54] Vaisala was mainly manufactured in
[27:56] Canada. They are ceasing to manufacture them
[27:59] in Canada. All Weather was manufactured in
[28:02] Colorado. They are adapting everything to that.
[28:05] So the Vaisalas are
[28:06] rapidly running out of support. Almost
[28:09] all of our customers who have
[28:10] Vaisalas are doing
[28:12] replacement programs. If you have a Vaisala, it's a
[28:15] good project. It fits perfectly into
[28:19] the funds you have left from the IJ. You have
[28:23] 20,000 that are about to expire. It's quite
[28:26] clear. I think it's a piece of cake to be able to
[28:29] use those funds and not let
[28:31] those 20,000 expire. Well, that's what we
[28:35] recommend, that we move forward
[28:37] and start working hard to make it
[28:39] work. Right now there are no
[28:43] technical problems with your AWOS, except
[28:46] that if you run out of salami, you might
[28:49] not be able to find another one because they are no longer
[28:52] manufactured. It's a hard piece
[28:55] to find. People sell used ones
[28:58] when the old systems stop
[29:01] working. But right now it's the
[29:04] only way to find them.
[29:05] And you don't know how long they'll last. So you
[29:07] buy it and you don't even know how much
[29:09] time you have left.
[29:09] How old is yours?
[29:11] 16 years old.
[29:12] Oh. 2010.
[29:14] Yes, and they say they are usually
[29:16] replaced after 15 or 20 years.
[29:22] Yes, the other old ones are
[29:24] good too. They have a much more
[29:30] internet-based interface, so Jessica
[29:35] will be able to make additions.
[29:38] Yes. So, when you listen to the
[29:40] A-wash, you can notice that at the end of it there is
[29:42] a small recording. I mean
[29:44] , she can send it and
[29:45] record it. Yes, every time you issue a
[29:48] note, you can post it on the
[29:50] back of the A-wash too if
[29:51] you want. And that's what
[29:54] most of the places you know do; when you
[29:57] walk in and listen to the A-sauce, like
[29:59] South Bend, they have a recording at the
[30:01] end. It's the same system.
[30:05] They're simply
[30:06] playing.
[30:07] Well, you said that this 20,000
[30:09] would cover the A-wash and the AS...
[30:14] Oh, no, no, no. That's it, that's all...
[30:16] We have 20,000 that are expiring because it's going to be
[30:18] 3 years old.
[30:20] Total?
[30:21] 20. Yes, the A-wash is 212,000 with
[30:24] professional services and facilities
[30:27] . And this one is for a 3PT, which
[30:31] means it's third generation
[30:34] . It has a rainfall
[30:36] and thunderstorm detector.
[30:38] Okay.
[30:39] 21,000.
[30:40] 3 years.
[30:41] Okay, so we're simply
[30:43] adding those 20 to whatever value it is.
[30:46] Monthly costs. Understood.
[30:51] Yes. Yes. Yes. And we're estimating the
[30:59] PAPI replacement,
[31:02] tower rehabilitation, and
[31:05] additional tree trimming that the FAA hasn't
[31:09] paid for at basically 500 of 69,000.
[31:14] Yes.
[31:16] So the fuel park,
[31:19] you can see that the fuel park portion
[31:22] is 1.17, but we're only
[31:26] using 166,500 of IJ funds because
[31:29] that's all that was determined to be
[31:33] eligible from IJ. So, among
[31:38] all these projects, the reason that
[31:40] number is in the red is that that's
[31:42] the IJ balance
[31:44] we would allocate to the
[31:46] PAPI tree obstruction tower project, and that would
[31:49] deplete all the IJ. And then you would pay for
[31:52] the rest of that project with the
[31:54] rights. Technically you have $
[31:57] 300,000 in rights because
[31:59] we transferred them last year, you get
[32:01] another $150 this year, but we would only
[32:03] use $206 of that. So you would have some money left over
[32:05] . That would go towards the
[32:08] program's balance, which is expected to get
[32:13] this
[32:17] track project back on track.
[32:18] The BCA.
[32:19] So, the BCA, we're not actually
[32:21] showing it here because we already had that
[32:23] other agreement and another grant, and
[32:25] we're going to repurpose some of those
[32:27] funds for the BCA.
[32:28] Oh, okay.
[32:30] Yes, in that one we have 157. We've used
[32:33] the whole percentage, so 140,000.
[32:37] Left.
[32:38] Yes.
[32:40] And we won't use all of that for the BCA.
[32:42] I'm thinking of something between 10 and 50.
[32:45] It's a high number, but I don't know.
[32:53] It'll be at least $10,000 because
[32:56] my people don't come to work for less
[32:58] than $10,000, so...well,
[33:01] that's it. So, if it's alright with you
[33:05] , item five on your
[33:07] agenda is this consideration of
[33:09] professional loss services A.
[33:12] There's a draft of that. Of course, they don't
[33:14] need to act on that this
[33:16] month. I didn't expect them to do it, but
[33:20] I wanted to show it to them because, if
[33:22] we decide that's the way
[33:24] we want to do it, I want to get it going
[33:27] so we can get through the
[33:29] FA process. They will begin accepting
[33:33] applications again in November for
[33:35] the next round, with
[33:38] half grants expected sometime
[33:40] between March and April. But they will accept
[33:44] applications from November to December
[33:47] for that April program. Well,
[33:52] they can file the motion tonight.
[33:53] If they want some time to think about it
[33:55] and send it last month.
[34:06] I like the motion that we approve the
[34:10] order of project number 11 of annex
[34:14] one to...Yes, I
[34:17] second it. Is
[34:18] everyone in favor?
[34:19] Yes. Yes.
[34:22] Okay. They certainly don't need to pass the
[34:26] Pappy or the CIP tonight
[34:28] . I recommend that you do not
[34:31] do so until we attempt to hold
[34:33] our CIP meeting. I think it's
[34:34] next week.
[34:36] Well, we haven't
[34:37] scheduled it yet. I don't think it will be until the
[34:40] first or second week of November.
[34:43] I hope it will be before their
[34:45] November meeting.
[34:45] I thought it was always during the AAI.
[34:47] He is, but they didn't fire him. They didn't
[34:50] schedule it.
[34:51] Yes.
[34:53] But now we have to choose for that.
[34:56] So we asked.
[34:57] Well, there are 68 airports and they
[35:00] only carry out 12 each year. Well, you were
[35:04] n't scheduled for the
[35:05] original meeting of 12. That doesn't mean you can't
[35:06] request one.
[35:07] Clear.
[35:08] But they usually do them
[35:10] virtually, like a week or two
[35:11] later.
[35:12] Yes.
[35:12] So it will probably be a
[35:13] virtual meeting. Well,
[35:16] we can probably tell you we'll come by car if
[35:18] you want to come in person. We've always
[35:20] gone in person in the past.
[35:22] Yes. I do
[35:23] n't really know if that makes much of a difference
[35:26] with this particular group,
[35:28] but I'd be happy to drive
[35:31] there with you.
[35:32] Zoom.
[35:34] Yes. Well, I would say let's
[35:36] postpone it until the
[35:38] November meeting. We could get more
[35:41] information. And if we don't have the
[35:42] CIP meeting before the
[35:44] November meeting, we'll have to approve
[35:46] something. It's December 1st. So...
[35:50] There will be action at the
[35:51] November meeting.
[35:52] Like what kind of things? Very good. Alright
[35:55] .
[35:56] Very good. Thank you for your time. Do
[35:58] n't worry. Any other business?
[36:02] None.
[36:04] Very good. Any new issues?
[36:05] New business, we have many
[36:07] new businesses. We have an assignment of
[36:11] leases for
[36:14] aircraft storage land for A 4-3,
[36:17] A 4-5, A 4-7 and hangars T A2 to A3.
[36:22] A tenant passed away, so this
[36:24] is just a transfer of
[36:27] land leases to his children, who were already
[36:29] on the land leases before
[36:32] . It's very easy. It's just a
[36:35] one-page, double-sided document. All
[36:38] leases do not change. It's
[36:40] just a matter of changing, removing one name and
[36:42] leaving only the other two on the
[36:44] list. That's all they do.
[36:46] Land leases continue to
[36:47] say the same thing. If they could
[36:49] approve it, that would be great. And then
[36:56] I'll talk about the last one, unless you
[36:57] want me to.
[36:58] Yes, I will make a motion for us to
[37:00] approve Philip's transfer of
[37:05] aircraft storage land leases for A4-3,
[37:07] A4-5, A4-7, A2-A3, and
[37:09] Perfecto.
[37:10] A 4-9. Not yet
[37:11] . Not yet.
[37:12] Oh I'm sorry.
[37:14] Postponing the last one. The last one is an
[37:24] actual land lease that has
[37:27] changed. It's a new
[37:29] land lease. This particular hangar
[37:31] was also owned by Dale, that is
[37:33] , the same person, the same group
[37:35] . He was there, the two children
[37:38] too, but he had a
[37:40] 20-year lease that had ended and
[37:42] then he had a 10-year extension
[37:44] that had also ended. The
[37:47] old contract only included a
[37:48] 10-year extension, so we had to
[37:50] draw up a new one for him. This
[37:53] lease is for 5 years. And that's
[37:56] to make sure the
[37:58] new owners don't live in the area
[38:00] , so they'll make sure they
[38:02] keep all the insurance up to date and
[38:04] that they have planes in all the
[38:06] hangars. Currently, they are
[38:10] managed by a manager who
[38:12] is neither on the ground nor in the area. He
[38:14] has no experience in aviation or anything like that
[38:16] . So it's a
[38:17] 5-year lease with no
[38:19] renewal. To make sure
[38:22] everything is going well, and if it is, in 5 years
[38:24] we can do whatever the board decides at
[38:26] that time. Well.
[38:29] this is the hangar we
[38:30] agreed to give 5 years to.
[38:32] Correct. And that's the A4-9.
[38:35] Okay.
[38:37] And they have aircraft. I made sure they had
[38:39] aircraft in all their
[38:40] hangars because those were kind of
[38:41] stipulations we talked about.
[38:43] Well, there are aircraft on them. They are
[38:46] doing a good job. They are up to
[38:47] date with all their insurance. Everything is
[38:49] fine. All of their leases are
[38:51] paid. So there's no reason not to
[38:53] give them another lease. Well. Okay.
[38:56] I will make a motion for us to approve the
[38:58] 5-year lease of hangar A
[39:00] 4-9. I
[39:00] second that.
[39:01] Okay. Is everyone in favor?
[39:02] Yes.
[39:03] Motion approved. Do
[39:06] we have to sign all of that today?
[39:07] No. It's just that the only one that needed
[39:09] everyone's signature was the
[39:10] land lease. All assignments are
[39:12] for one person only.
[39:14] Understood.
[39:15] Anyone who wants to sign it can do so.
[39:17] Okay, is this the
[39:18] claims file?
[39:18] Yes, that
[39:20] was circulating around here. 52,189.34.
[39:27] Oh, did you have a question? Are there two
[39:30] payments to NIPsco there?
[39:32] Yes. Because we didn't have
[39:34] a meeting in September, so it's all the
[39:35] claims from September and all the
[39:36] claims from October. And besides,
[39:39] we have two payments to NIPsco every month anyway
[39:41] because they couldn't
[39:42] consolidate our new SRE building
[39:44] with everything else. So I have to
[39:47] pay for everything, and then I have a
[39:49] separate bill for the SRE building. Okay,
[39:52] we paid. But, I mean, the city
[39:54] only writes one check, but we
[39:55] actually now have two
[39:56] separate bills for the airport because of
[39:58] that building. Good questions, Kirk. I
[40:01] like it. Good questions.
[40:03] Okay, the details.
[40:04] Yes they are. Let us
[40:06] make a motion to accept
[40:08] the claim file for the
[40:10] amount of $52,189.34. I
[40:12] second that. Is
[40:13] everyone in favor?
[40:14] Yes.
[40:15] Motion approved. OK.
[40:21] None. Let's
[40:29] make a motion to adjourn the
[40:30] session.